


Dancers and the Dreamers

by IAmTheHero



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: His name's Nathanael., It's more of a term of endearment at this point., Multi, Not Beta Read, POV First Person, The Apprentice is an OC of mine., Toenail Collection reference, Valerius calls you witch, We die like the men Kirishima Eijirou wants us to be, You are not the Apprentice.
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-30
Updated: 2020-09-30
Packaged: 2021-03-08 03:41:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 750
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26739034
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IAmTheHero/pseuds/IAmTheHero
Summary: You talk and dance with Valerius. Pretty short and sweet.
Relationships: Apprentice/Portia Devorak, Portia Devorak/Original Character(s), Portia Devorak/Original Male Character(s), Valerius (The Arcana)/Reader, Valerius (The Arcana)/You
Comments: 11
Kudos: 27





	Dancers and the Dreamers

Music and party spirit filled the town square. A lovely band played a fast paced Vesuvian party song. From my position at the side of everything, I had a clear view of Nathanael and Portia swinging each other around. The energy and excitement was tangible. For me, it was almost too much, hence why I stayed at the edge with a mug of imported Galbradan root beer in hand. My foot tapped against the cobblestones in time to the rhythm. Things were nice.

"What are you doing, witch?"

A wild Consul Valerius appeared. I glanced at him. "Just people watching. The real question is why you're with me."

"Hmmph." The consul elected to remain silent. Standing a respectable, non-scandalous distance away, he crossed his arms and stared out at the crowd. I took the opportunity to subtly examine his appearance in a non-creepy way. His hair was bound in a fishtail braid that ran straight down his back. Black and blue silk robes complimented him, flowing like water over his frame. The magic, multicolored lights floating in the air cast pretty patterns on his face. In the simplest terms, he was breathtakingly handsome. Who needs air anyway?

In the midst of my admittedly obvious gawking, a pair of gold eyes flicked my way. "Do you like what you see? I personally don't mind."

Fire rushed straight to my face, and I looked away, using my hand to shield my rapidly reddening skin. "Well-I mean-I guess-you, you look nice." Why bother hiding it? He already knew.

His expression softened. "I appreciate the compliment. For what it's worth, you . . . don't look like a complete disaster."

Whether or not it was intentional, the awkwardness shattered. I broke out into a fit of giggles. Setting down the cup, I covered my mouth and forced myself to calm. "That's probably the best compliment I've ever gotten from you, consul, but thank you."

"Please, call me Valerius. I think we've broken past the formalities of court."

His expression was the most genuine I'd ever seen on him, eyes wide with the smallest smile physically possible curling his lips. I slowly nodded "Then call me by my name. Or witch."

"It doesn't offend you?"

"Nah. Honestly, that nickname was the least offensive part of our first encounter."

We drifted into silence, but the atmosphere was light and cheery. Peaceful, even. It was a substantial improvement over the raw animosity of a couple months prior. The Wine and Cake Incident was quite a first impression. I snuck another glance. The music shifted to a slow song. Couples formed. It looked fun and anxiety inducing. "Do you know how to dance?" Immediately, I realized how stupid a question it was.

"Of course." Valerius sounded almost offended.

"That's good."

Silence.

"Do you want to-"

"I can't dance." My hand reached to cover my neck, and I refused to make eye contact. "Just ask Nath. He'll vouch for that, although if you wanna find someone else...."

He scoffed. "'Can't dance'? This"-he gestured at the swaying horde-"is _not_ dancing. Look. Even the count is 'dancing', and if he is capable, so are you." And sure enough, at some point, Lucio abducted some bespectacled bystander with brown-or blond? Brond?-hair. In all fairness, they moved with relative grace. I cast Valerius a look of mild concern. He extended his hand, brow raised.

I sighed. "Just don't complain when your toes die of blunt force trauma." I took hold.

"I'll keep that in mind." After moving to the dance floor, we extended our clasped hands to the side. I grabbed his shoulder, and he took my waist. "Follow my lead. This is the simplest step."

Staring at his feet, I worked to mirror his moves. Left, down, meet. Right, up, meet. Rinse and repeat. The more we cycled through the steps, the less I relied on sight. "This isn't so difficult." Honestly, it was actually fun and less stressful than anticipated.

He hummed. "You're very competent."

"I'll assume that's a compliment."

"Indeed."

We stood fairly close to each other. Close enough to make eye contact, at least. He stood only a couple inches taller than me, so I didn't have to crane my neck too far to look at him. It was nice having a solid presence nearby. As the final chords came to a close, he bowed and kissed my knuckles. "Thank you for the delightful time," he said.

I gently took my hand back. "Thank _you_ , Valerius, for helping me."

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed this really bad piece of word vomit. I wrote and rewrote it, like, ten times. Lemme know whatcha think. I hope Valerius wasn't too OOC.


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